Method of forming letters and numbers readable by the blind



Aug. 3, 1965 E, MICROPOULOU METHOD OF FORMING LETTERS AND NUMBERS READABLE BY THE BLIND O O O Q w n v m m mt I O .O O n .m a .3 k mi N. m J 0 wt 0 f n o w o\ -v N wmt- R m m M WWW F W W K m M A u a a m Q Q a 000 0 w M M f M Vb? ,0 o o o w N\O O/\ \b\| ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,197,889 METHOD OF FORMING LETTERS AND NUM BERS READABLE BY THE BLIND Evangelia A. Micropoulou, Kallithea, near Athens, Greece (118 S. Valley Road, Paoli, Pa.) Filed Sept. 21, 1960, Ser. No. 57,551

4 Claims. (CI. 35-35) The present invention relates to a method of forming a system of letters and numbers which can be read by a blind person.

The conventional Braille system has come into almost universal use, and'manybooks and periodicals are regularly published in the Braille system. The conventional method of forming the letters in the Braille system is to upset from the surface of a paper a series of groups of projections which are disposed in two parallel rows which extend parallel to the side edge of the page, i.e., in the direction from the top to the bottom of the page, the maximum number of dots in either row being three, and the maximum number of dots'in any character being six. The groups of projections are strung out-across a page in lines which are positioned one beneath the other down the lengthof the page. 1 t

As might be expected, use of such a system requires considerably more space than conventional printing, and accordingly books and periodicals published in this system have a considerably greater number of pages than the same books or periodicals inprin'ted form. This accordingly makes certain books and periodicals somewhat unwieldy, and has begun to present an important and difficult storage problem in libraries-which have extensive collections of various works in the Braille system.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of forming letters and numbers which can be read by the blind which takes considerably less space than does the same material-when reproduced in the Braille system.

The method according to the present invention comprises forming the thirteen most frequently used consonants by upsetting from the surface of a sheet patterns consisting of groups of projections in permutations and combinations of four, the projections being disposed at the corners of a square, while the remaining letters of the alphabet are similarly formed, but by patterns consisting of two groups placed side by side. Numbers are formed by patterns of two such groups, the pattern of the first group of which dilfers from the pattern of thefirst group of the two group letters. p t

The invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a representation of the basic pattern for the positions of projections from which a Braille letter or number is produced;

FIG. 2 is the basic pattern for the positions of projections from which the letters and numbers in the system according to the present invention are produced;

FIG. 3 is a representation of the letter A of the Roman alphabet in the system according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a representation of the letter D in the system according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a representation of the letter B in the system according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a representation of the letter G in the system according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a representation of the Roman alphabet according to the system of the present inventionyand FIG. 8 is a representationof the Arabic numbers according to the system of the present invention.

The method according to the present invention comprises upsetting from a surface, for example from a sheet of paper, patterns of projections in permutations and combinations of four. In the Braille system, a representation of the basic pattern of which is shown in FIG. 1, the pattern of projections is such that the projections lie in two parallel lines which are three positions high. The left-hand row of positions 1, 4 and 6 lies parallel to the right-hand row of positions 2, 3 and 5. By upsetting projections in one or more of these positions, and varying the permutations and combinations of projections, a different pattern of projections can be obtained for each letter of the Roman alphabet and each numeral, together with certain characters for punctuation marks.

In the system according to the present invention, however, the pattern of positions for the projections is as illustrated in FIG. 2. A base pattern of four positions 1, 2, 3 and 4 arranged in a square is provided, and is immediately preceded by an auxiliary pattern which also consists of four positions 1', 2, 3' and 4', also in the form of a square. In order to form the six vowels and seven of the most frequently used consonants of the Roman alphabet, a base pattern of projections consisting of one or more projections are struck up on the base pattern of positions, the patterns of the various permutations and combinations of projections which are used for base patterns totalling thirteen. For example, upsetting a projection in the position 1 will form the letter A (FIG. 3), while upsetting projections in the positions 2 and 3 will form a letter D (FIG. 4), and upsetting projections in the positions 1 and 3 will form the letter B (FIG.5).

In order to form the remaining thirteen consonants base patterns of projections consisting of various permutations and combinations of projections are upset from the base pattern of positions 1, 2, 3 and 4, and each of the base patterns of projections is immediately preceded by a first auxiliary pattern of projections which is upset from the auxiliary pattern positions 1', 2', 3 and 4'. For the remaining thirteen consonants, it is suflicient to precede each pattern formed on the basic positions by a single projection, for example in the 3' position of the auxiliary pattern. Thus, by upsetting projections from each of the positions 1,' 2, 3 and 4 in the basic patternand upsetting a singleprojection from the 3' position in the auxiliary pattern, the letter G may be formed (FIG. 6). It will be, seen that the auxiliary pattern is different from each of the base patterns, thus eliminate possible confusion between a letter represented by a base pattern preceded by an auxiliary pattern and a repeated letter represented by two identical base patterns side by side.

Using this system, it is an easy matter to form a complete Rom-an alphabet of twenty-six letters, as illustrated in FIG. 7.

If an alphabet having more than the twenty-six characters of the Roman alphabet is to be formed, it will be necessary to have three or more sets of base patterns f projections. Each set may have up to fifteen patterns, the highest number of permutations and combinations of projections possible, and there must be two or more sets of auxiliary patterns of projections. The fifteen most frequently used characters can then be represented by a first set of base patterns of project-ions, the fifteen second most frequently used characters to be represented by a second set of the fifteen base patterns of projections each of which is preceded by a first auxiliary pattern of projections, the fifteen third most frequently used characters to be represented by a third set of the fifteen base patterns of p ojections each of which is preceded by a second auxiliary pattern of projections, etc. Thus a total of 240 characters can be formed by various patterns of projections on the base and auxiliary patterns of projection positions.

In such a system, however, it will be necessary to separate the patterns representing the same character repeating itself, such as BE in order to distinguish it from the where T is the total number of characters in the system, and i15-n is the number ofau'xiliary patterns which will be needed. .Thus, where 48 characters are needed, one solution of the equation will give the number of base patterns as twelve, so that the number of auxiliary patterns will be three. There can thus be used the twelve base patterns, plus three sets of basepa-tterns each preceded by an auxiliary pattern which is different from each of the base patterns and each of the auxiliary patterns.

The same system can be used in order to form numbers. Projections are upset on the basic pattern in various permutations and combinations, and each of these is preceded by .an auxiliary pattern of projections upset from the positions of the auxiliary pattern. In the number system,

' which is illustrated in FIG. 8, the second pattern has a single projection upset from the lower left-hand corner position '4' of the auxiliary pattern. This is of course a different auxiliary pattern of projections than precedes the thirteen less frequently used consonants of the Roman alphabet.

It is also possible to have frequently used words represented by a base pattern of projections preceded by an auxiliary pattern of projections which is different from the otherauxiliary patterns of'projections in use for the particular alphabet. Thus, in the Roman alphabet, the 'word like ,and could be formed by the base pattern of projections for the letter A preceded by an auxiliary .pattern ofprojectious which isdifferent from the auxiliary pattern of projections for the thirteen less frequently used consonants or the auxiliary pattern for the numbers.

The foregoing'system has been carefully tested, and it is found that it not only saves from /5 /3 the amount of space as compared to the conventional Braille system, but it is easy for blind persons to learn and to use, at least as fast to read, and simplifying both the teaching and the reading.

It is thought that the invention and its advantages will be understoodfrom the foregoing description and it is apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructions and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing its material advantages, the form hereinbef-ore described and illustrated in the drawings being merely a preferred embodiment thereof. 4 I

I claim:

.1. A method of forming a Roman alphabet of letters readable by the blind, comprising forming the thirteen corner of the square.

most frequently used letters by upset-ting from a surface base patterns consisting of projections in permutations and combinations of four, the projections being disposed on a pattern of positions in the shape of a square, and forming the remaining thirteen letters by upsetting from the surface a first set of said base patterns of projections and forming a first auxiliary pattern of projections immediately preceding each pattern of said set of base patterns of projections by upsetting from the .surface a pattern of projections, the projections being disposed on a pattern of positions in the shape of a square, said first auxiliary pattern consisting of a single projection disposed at the same corner of the square, in each first auxiliary pattern the said first auxiliary pattern being different from the permutations and combinations of projections forming said base patterns.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising forming a set of Arabic numbers readable by the blind by forming the digits of the number by upsetting from the surface a second set of base patterns and forming a second auxiliary pattern of projections immediately preceding each base pattern of projections of said second set of base patterns of projections by'upsetting from the surface apattern of projections, the projections being disposed on a pattern of positions in the shape of a square, said second auxiliary pattern consisting of .a single projection disposed at the same corner of the square in each second auxiliary pattern, the single projection of said second auxiliary pattern of projections being at a different corner of the square from said first auxiliary .pattern of projections and being different from the permutations and combinations of projections forming said base-patterns.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 in which said first auxiliary pattern has one projection at the lower right-hand 4., A method as claimed in claim 2 in which said first auxiliary pattern has one projection at the lower right-hand corner of the square, and said second auxiliary pattern has a projection at the lower left-hand corner of the square.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 506,7-18 10/93' Orndorff 35--38 X 1,936,089 11/33 Jacquerod 3538 X 2,850,812 9/5 8 Mannheimer 3538 FOREIGN PATENTS 457,017 3/28 Germany.

977,209 1-1/50 France.

JEROME SCHNALL, Primary Examiner. WILLIAM J. KANOF, LEO SMILOW, Examiners. 

1. A METHOD OF FORMING A ROMAN ALPHABET OF LETTERS READABLE BY THE BLIND, COMPRISING FORMING THE THIRTEEN MOST FREQUENTLY USED LETTERS BY UPSETTING FROM A SURFACE BASE PATTERNS CONSISTING OF PROJECTIONS IN PERMUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS OF FOUR, THE PROJECTIONS BEING DISPOSED ON A PATTERN OF POSITIONS IN THE SHAPE OF A SQUARE, AND FORMING THE REMAINING THIRTEEN LETTERS BY UPSETTING FROM THE SURFACE A FIRST SET OF SAID BASE PATTERNS OF PROJECTIONS AND FORMING A FIRST AUXILIARY PATTERN OF PROJECTIONS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING EACH PATTERN OF SAID SET OF BASE PATTERNS OF PROJECTIONS BY UPSETTING FROM THE SURFACE A PATTERN OF PROJECTIONS, THE PROJECTIONS BEING DISPOSED ON A PATTERN OF POSITIONS IN THE SHAPE OF A SQUARE, SAID FIRST AUXULIARY PATTERN CONSISTING OF A SINGLE PROJECTION DISPOSED AT THE SAME CORNER OF THE SQUARE, IN EACH FIRST AUXILIARY PATTERN THE SAID FIRST AUXILIARY PATTERN BEING DIFFERENT FROM THE PERMUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS OF PROJECTIONS FORMING SAID BASE PATTERNS. 